Last night, on The National (CBC TV), Paul Hunter, a CBC journalist, described how his body felt the blast of a missile on a nearby apartment building in Gaza. Reverberations. Shaking. In this clip (here), he describes the “thump, thump, thump” of strikes and the “booms”. He describes “anguish” as experienced by the “village” of people gathering at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Where to go, away from the thump? Thump. THUMP.
From an inspiring song, I hear the words of Xavier Rudd, “What does your heart say?” (from Follow the Sun, here) Is it yet beating? Artists, Nobel laureates, and public intellectuals, internationally, are expressing what their hearts are feeling. See this article in The Guardian on 18 July 2014 (here) in which they observe, “Israel’s ability to launch such devastating attacks with impunity largely stems from the vast international military cooperation and trade that it maintains with complicit governments across the world. Over the period 2008-19, the US is set to provide military aid to Israel worth $30bn, while Israeli annual military exports to the world have reached billions of dollars.”
Guess what? The Canadian government is one of those complicit ‘leaders’. Click here, here, and here. Call on Canada to stop the assault (here).
Add your name to this international petition (here), calling for a military embargo on Israel (here). This fact sheet offers additional information (here).
More info – 8 crucial points (including how international law relates to the conflict) are here. Here are the numbers as of this morning (here). Here are some insights when engaging in discussion (here). Here are tips for reading the news with a critical/thoughtful eye (here). Here’s info for locating your Member of Parliament for engaging him or her in dialogue (here).
Watch this page for Uri Avnery’s comments as a long-time Israeli peace activist, here.
More news is available at Maan News (here) and The Electronic Intifada (here).
If you are in Edmonton on 25 July 2014, consider sharing what your heart says at this International Day of al-Quds’ Rally for Palestine (here); Al-Quds is also known as Jerusalem. This brings to mind an association with the phrase, ‘Jerusalem in my heart,’ with the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish (more here and here).
Hmmm, yes. Thump. Thump, thump, thump…beating, go our hearts…
Peacing Stories 
As we vacation and are so removed from the news, it is shocking when we do come out of our cocoon and hear that the Israeli assault continues. I just saw Bloomberg standing in Israel to complain about FAA not sending flights to the safest airport in the world. 🙂 if it is so safe then why this incredible assault on GAZA and wailing about Hamas.
I am soooo…. disappointed in Canada. Heard Harper and John Baird’s responses to journalists when asked in connection with Russia and Ukraine about Israel’s assault being similar to Russian, he didn’t understand the question….???